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Taking Over an AI Receptionist Conversation

MaidSense, your AI receptionist, handles most customer texts and chats automatically. When a conversation needs a personal touch, staff can step in on that single conversation without shutting off MaidSense everywhere else.

Who Can Access This​

RoleAccess Level
AdministratorFull access
Office ManagerView and edit
SalesView and edit
HR AdminView and edit
Payroll AdminView and edit
note

This feature may need to be enabled for your company. If you don't see it, contact your administrator to check your feature settings.

Overview​

Every SMS, web chat, and customer portal chat conversation MaidSense handles shows up in the conversation browser. Most conversations run start to finish without any staff involvement. But sometimes a customer needs something MaidSense can't handle — a special request, a complaint, or just a preference to talk to a person. In those cases, a staff member can take over the conversation directly.

Taking over only affects that one conversation thread. MaidSense keeps handling everything else for that customer and for every other customer as normal.

If a conversation goes quiet for too long, its session ages out and can no longer be taken over directly — see When a Conversation Has Aged Out below for how to follow up on those instead.

How to Take Over a Conversation​

  1. Open the conversation from the MaidSense conversation browser, or from an escalation's detail view.
  2. Click Take Over.
  3. Type your reply and click Send. Your message goes to the customer right away.

While you're in control, the conversation status shows Under staff control (owned by you). If a teammate already took it over, the button reads Take Over from followed by that teammate's name, so you know who's currently handling it before you jump in.

When you're finished, click Complete Takeover and add a short note describing the outcome. This closes out your intervention and returns the conversation to its normal status.

When a Conversation Has Aged Out​

Some conversations go quiet long enough that the underlying session ends — MaidSense marks these aged out. When you open one, you'll see Takeover unavailable — conversation aged out instead of the Take Over button, because there's no live session left to step into.

Depending on the conversation, Pulse offers one of two paths:

  • Message customer button — shown when the conversation resolved to a customer or lead with a phone number and reachable channel, and you have permission to send messages. Click Message customer to open Pulse Connect on that contact. The receptionist's earlier messages already show up there as notes on the same thread, so you have full context, and anything you send is attributed to you and filed automatically. This does not revive the old aged-out session on its original channel (for example, a dead website widget chat) — it starts a fresh message on an address the customer actually gave, like their phone number.
  • Fallback instructions — shown when Pulse Connect follow-up isn't available for this conversation. If the customer has opted out of messaging, Pulse tells you not to text them and to call instead if follow-up is warranted, recording the result in Pulse yourself. Otherwise, Pulse asks you to open the linked contact and follow up by phone or text, then record the result in Pulse.
note

The Message customer button only appears for phone-reachable conversations (SMS, voice, and AI phone calls). Web chat, portal chat, and website widget conversations don't have a durable address to message back on, so they always show the fallback instructions instead.

What the Customer Sees​

The customer doesn't see a "staff joined" announcement. Instead, your replies are labeled differently than MaidSense's:

  • Web chat — your messages show as coming from Team.
  • Portal chat — the conversation is labeled Portal Conversation, and your reply box is labeled Portal Reply.
  • SMS — your messages show your name (or Office Staff if your name isn't set).
note

If a customer isn't actively viewing their portal chat when you reply, Pulse automatically delivers your reply by text or email instead, so it still reaches them. You'll see a note confirming this — for example, "The portal was inactive, so the customer received it by text."

Escalation Wait Updates​

When a conversation is escalated and no one takes it over right away, MaidSense automatically sends the customer short updates so they know they haven't been forgotten:

  1. First update (about a minute in) — lets the customer know MaidSense is still trying to connect them.
  2. Second update (a few minutes in) — reassures the customer that MaidSense is still working on it.
  3. Longer-wait update (around five minutes in) — apologizes for the delay and confirms the team has been alerted.
  4. Final update (around ten minutes in) — lets the customer know a team member will follow up separately if no one has connected yet.

These messages are sent automatically — you don't need to do anything for the customer to receive them. Taking over the conversation at any point stops the automatic wait updates, since a person is now handling it directly.

Unanswered Follow-ups​

Sometimes MaidSense can't answer a customer's message right away — the request needs a human, or the conversation stalls before MaidSense responds. Pulse now tracks these as unanswered follow-ups so nothing falls through the cracks:

  • The Analytics Overview on the MaidSense Receptionist page shows two extra KPI tiles: Unanswered Follow-ups (customer messages still waiting on a response) and Assigned Follow-ups (how many of those have been assigned to office staff).
  • When you open an escalation that stems from one of these unanswered messages, the Escalation Detail drawer shows a Customer is waiting on block above the summary, quoting the customer's last unanswered message — so you know exactly what to respond to before you take over.

Tips and Best Practices​

  • Check the conversation browser regularly for escalated conversations waiting on a response.
  • Watch the Unanswered Follow-ups tile on the Receptionist page — a rising count means customers are waiting longer than they should.
  • Add a clear outcome note when you complete a takeover — it helps your team follow up if the customer reaches out again later.
  • If a teammate already owns a conversation, coordinate with them before taking it over so you don't send conflicting replies.

Troubleshooting​

What you seeSolution
I don't see a Take Over buttonYour role may not have permission to take over conversations. Contact your administrator.
The button says "Take Over from" someone elseA teammate already took over this conversation. Check with them before taking over yourself.
The customer says they never heard backCheck whether the conversation was escalated and review the wait updates already sent — then take it over to reply directly.
I only see fallback instructions, not a Message customer buttonEither the conversation didn't resolve to a customer or lead with a phone number, the contact has opted out of messaging, the channel is web chat / portal chat / widget (no durable address), or you don't have permission to send messages. Follow the fallback instructions shown instead.